Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream (Paperback) - Softcover

Colonna, Francesco

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1849028826 ISBN 13: 9781849028820

Publisher: Benediction Books, 2009

Synopsis

One of the most famous books in the world, the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, read by every Renaissance intellectual and referred to in studies of art and culture ever since, was first published in English by Thames & Hudson in 1999. It is a strange, pagan, pedantic, erotic, allegorical, mythological romance relating in high stylized Italian the quest of Poliphilo for his beloved Polia. The author (presumed to be Francesco Colonna, a friar of dubious reputation) was obsessed by architecture, landscape, and costume it is not going too far to say sexually obsessed and its 174 woodcuts are primary source for Renaissance ideas on both buildings and gardens. In 1952 an attempt was made to produce an English version but the translator gave up. The task has been triumphantly accomplished by Joscelyn Godwin, who succeeds in reproducing all its way ward charm and arcane learning in language accessible to the modern reader.

About this title

About the Author:

Joscelyn Godwin is Professor of Music at Colgate University. He has written books on the seventeenth-century occult philosophers Robert Fludd and Athanasius Kircher, as well as on the history of theosophy and on the spiritual dimension of music.

From Library Journal:

Published in 1499, this standard of the Renaissance is here translated for the first time into English. The text apparently is difficult, and earlier efforts to produce an English-language text were abandoned. Essentially a romance, this tells the story of protagonist Poliphilo's quest for the love of Polia. More for hard-core academic collections, especially at this price.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Benediction Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1849028826
• ISBN 13: 9781849028820
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 212